By the Ancestors
by Anon1718
Summary: Each and every victory comes with a cost. But what if the cost is too much to bear? By making her choice to stay with Spyro at the core of the world, Cynder is forced to face the very cruel and uncomfortable truth that not everyone escapes war entirely unharmed...


**"I love you..."**

Cynder repeated those three important words to herself several times, desperately trying to cling onto something- anything at all, that resembled a coherent thought. It was like trying to hold sand in her paws though, she quickly found the challenge impossible, and the words disappeared almost as soon as they came to mind, like a whisper lost in the wind.

Ancestors, she was tired. She just couldn't think straight anymore. Her memories were foggy and indistinct, but what little she did remember told her that she had only just recently become aware of floating here in this endless black void, without knowing why or how. The more rational part of her mind screamed for answers with a desperation that actually scared her.

 _Where was this place? How did I get here? What happened to me?_

All of a sudden Cynder began to regain her senses again, inexplicably. She could see a light now, and it was shining onto her face with a warmth that she had hadn't even realised she was missing in the first place. Her scales felt as if they were frozen solid and her whole body began to shiver. Cynder wriggled her toes and flicked her tail, groaning uncomfortably in response to this sudden change of environment.

 _Wait, I had a body now?_

Excited as Cynder was at this stunning revelation, her eyes wouldn't open at first, the effort was just too much. She must have laid there for several long minutes at least, just slowly being stirred back to consciousness by the warming rays of light. As she began to become more aware of her surroundings, a brief flash of memory came to mind; a pair of yellow and feral eyes staring at her with such rage that it made her jump wide awake in a panic, gasping loudly in surprise. Her heart was suddenly hammering away furiously in an urgency of the likes she'd never experienced before, her breathing coming in short, sharp pants.

 _Malefor! Oh ancestors! We were fighting him at the core of the world!_

Recent events came flooding back all at once and Cynder leapt to her feet with great haste, finding herself tensing purely from instinct, certain that something was wrong all of a sudden. The almost too quiet environment made her tail twitch in suspicion, her two green emerald eyes darting around the room intently for any sign of danger. She was ready to pounce at the slightest provocation, her lips curled back into a feral snarl.

But...there was nothing there. After a quick glance of her surroundings, Cynder soon came to the conclusion that this was someone's bedroom. Beneath her paws, a rather comfortable looking woollen mattress sagged under her weight, and there were various objects like books and scrolls strewn all over the place untidily. It made her freeze in confusion and surprise, feeling utterly lost and out of place. Whatever it was that she had been expecting to see, this was obviously not it.

 _Where's Spyro?_ She wondered rather belatedly, her chest suddenly constricting with fear. _What happened to me? Why do I feel so drained and...empty?_

After a moment of pondering these troubling thoughts quite unsuccessfully, Cynder eventually decided with a sigh that such answers would only come from looking around. It seemed safe enough for now, so she slipped to the thick carpeted floor and padded towards the exit cautiously, a door that had been left slightly ajar. The utter silence of this place was distinctly unnerving though, so it was with some trepidation that she pushed it open and walked out onto what appeared to be the upper level of someone's home. She fairly quickly realised that this was an adult dragon's house, judging from the oddly huge proportions of everything. It all looked big enough to fit two adult dragons of Terrador's size side-by-side quite easily, which was certainly saying something!

Cynder had never been in such a place before, even in Warfang, so it took her quite some time to take everything in, her mouth falling open in amazement. Everywhere she looked something new would catch her eye that made her stare attentively. There were a few other closed doors leading to ancestors knew where up here as well, but the main thing to draw her attention was the huge set of stairs in the corner, curling enticingly just out of view where they led presumably down to a lower level.

It was at this point however that she became aware of voices talking quietly somewhere below her. Dropping to the ground instinctively she cursed herself for being so careless and moved forwards slowly, as if she were stalking prey. The voices were getting louder now, and she peeked her head cautiously over the side of the railings on the stairs to hear them more clearly.

"I'll go get her, don't worry. I heard her walking around up there..." Suddenly came a voice, chuckling with clear delight. It was deep and very obviously male, but for some reason she couldn't quite explain, it sounded distinctly familiar.

 _That's odd...who could that be?_

Unfortunately events left Cynder with very little time to think about it as the sound of paw-steps approached. Before she could even think to hide herself, a black scaled adult dragon suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs, walking in her general direction. She took one look at him and gasped out loud, holding a paw to her mouth in disbelief. The silvery crest he had on his head, the way in which several ivory horns protruded from the back of his head and curved in that familiar way, those two bright emerald eyes, just like hers...

"Dad...?" She whispered, frozen to the spot, her heart beginning to beat at a million times a second. It sounded impossible, but Cynder just couldn't imagine who else this dragon could be. The longer she stared, the more sure of it she actually was. There were clearly parts of him that she recognised in herself, including that rather cheeky smile that he returned in her direction as he saw where she was sitting.

"There you are you little rascal, come on!" He chuckled, "We've been waiting for you!"

Cynder remained rooted firmly to the spot however, falling to her haunches with so many emotions and impossible questions rolling around inside her head that she felt like both laughing out in joy and breaking out into tears at the same time. She ended up letting out a choked sob as a compromise and clutched her mouth again, which seemed to make the adult dragon hesitate and frown in worry as he saw her obvious distress.

"Hey, what's wrong sweetie?" He cooed softly, trotting up to be with her with great haste, a task that only took him a few seconds with his massive strides. He hesitated by her side then, seemingly unsure of what to do on seeing her tearful expression.

"I...I know all of this must be lot to take in, Cynder, but..."

He paused for a moment longer before simply deciding to reach forwards with his snout and brush it gently against her cheek in a comforting motion. The sudden and quite unexpected contact however made Cynder jump backwards in shock and scramble away from him desperately. If anything this seemed to make him look even more worried than before, and he seemed to only just barely stop himself at great effort from attempting to comfort her again.

"No! This can't be real, it c...cant be!" Cynder stammered, without much conviction to her voice. "You're not real, you're dead! I...I can't be here, this is all just a dream, or s...something!"

 _But he touched me! I felt it!_ Came a desperate voice in her mind, _It's real!_

A few tears rolled down her cheeks then as the adult dragon watched her carefully for a few moments, seemingly uncertain of what to say or do to help. Eventually though he approached again and she didn't stop him this time as he wrapped a wing around her trembling body, holding her closely to his chest.

"Shhh...It's okay! You're safe here and nothing can hurt you anymore, I promise..." His deep voice hummed. "You're with family now..."

She bristled with unease from such intimacy at first, but reluctantly she accepted the gesture a few seconds later by leaning into him. His warm scales felt just like she'd imagined them to and she cried out at last, totally loosing all self-control at that point. She had never been held in this way by anybody before, and the feeling of utter safety and comfort she drew from being totally cocooned in his wing was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. She was left totally unable to stop the torrent of emotion pouring out from her very heart as a result, and she cried and cried until there was nothing left.

"It'll all be okay...daddy's here..." He whispered, tugging her a little closer.

At the sound of that word she gripped one of his huge forepaws desperately and held it tightly, never wanting to let go. As unlikely as it was, she was certain of it now- this was her father. No matter how she got here or where this place even was, there were some things that just transcended everything. This was one of them.

 _Oh ancestors, I can't believe it!_

"I... I need to know. Is this real, d...dad?" She sniffed a few moments later, looking up to him with wide eyes. "Am I dreaming?"

"Shhh...just relax..." The adult drake hummed softly in reply. "Here, let me try something..."

Before she even knew what had happened next, her father had gently pushed her to over to her back and rested his muzzle on her stomach, his eyes twinkling with obvious amusement. She didn't know at all what to expect but as soon as he blew a huge raspberry there, it made her break out into such a chortle of unexpected laughter that she quickly lost track all of these troubling thoughts at once. His face split into a wide smile as he saw her reaction and he did it again, despite her weak attempts to push his muzzle away with her feet.

"Stop, stop! It's not fair! I'm serious! It's... Ahah...AHAHA!"

She squealed out several further times in such a manner so unlike her normal self that it surprised her. It was like a weight being carried on her very soul had been lifted and her tears quickly turned into ones of joy rather than sadness as a result.

 _This was real! Oh ancestors! It's really him!_

"Well last time I checked I'm here, wouldn't you say?" He chuckled, releasing her at last, his silvery bladed and metallic tail flicking around with obvious amusement.

"Come on then, we'd better get a move on! Your mom wants to see you as well, Cynder. It's been far too long. We've missed you..."

Cynder wiped the tears from her eyes and allowed a final snort to escape before attempting to put on a more serious expression. No matter how hard she tried however, she couldn't help but keep smiling. Even though every logical sense in her body was screaming at her that such a thing couldn't be real, she _wanted_ it to be, more than anything!

There was only one last thing that bothered her though, and that was the whereabouts of a certain purple dragon...

"I... I just feel so lost and confused..." Cynder sniffed again, "Do you know where my friend Spyro is? Is he here too? He was right there with me a minute ago, and then I...-"

She blinked a few times and hesitated on realising something quite worrying. She couldn't actually remember anything at all after seeing Spyro's scales explode in a wave of purple light at the core of the world. Her next memory was of waking up in that strange bedroom a few moments ago.

 _What the heck happened?_ Cynder wondered, feeling a jolt of alarm rush through her chest. _Something really isn't right here..._

Her father tilted his head curiously when he saw her contemplative expression and he frowned ever so slightly. "I haven't seen him here, but we could look for him in a few minutes if you'd like? Would that make you happy, Cynder?"

"I um... I guess so." She sighed, "But where is _here,_ anyway? I don't remember..."

The adult shadow dragon just smiled rather uneasily in return and clasped a paw to her shoulder. "Let's go see your mother, hmm? Maybe things will become clearer to you then..."

* * *

 **AN: Hello everyone! Thought I'd try something a little different and explore an interesting idea I've had in my head for a while now, and here is the result!**

 **I first thought of doing this as a one shot, but then all of a sudden realised it would be far better to actually write as a proper story instead. I have many, many evil and dastardly things planed in the next few chapters when I get round to it. Most of this story I admit will be heavy on the "feels" side, because its something I really need practice on and haven't done a lot of before! Besides, who doesn't love a bit of tragedy eh?**

 **Anyway, what do guys think about this short introduction? I'd love to hear your feedback!** **I wonder what's going to happen next! 0_o**

 **Guess we'll find out sometime later! (Cant promise how much later though, because my main focus will still be on "Expecting"!)**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :P** **See you next time!**


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